Microsoft hints at another price drop for the Xbox One

Microsoft has spent the first 9 months of the Xbox One being on sale fixing all the issues gamers had with the new machine. It’s now the same price as the PS4, the requirement that a Kinect be attached has gone, and the mandatory bundling of the motion controller has also ended. But Sony has a massive lead, and it looks as though Microsoft is now considering another price cut its console.

The Xbox One without Kinect currently sells for 399.99 euros across Europe. However, over the weekend the Spanish version of Xbox.com started displaying a price of 349.99 euros. The equivalent drop in the US would see the price fall from $399 down to just $329.

Of course, this could just be a mistake. The lower price only shows up on the mobile version of the Spanish Xbox.com website. But then, why would anyone be messing with the price unless a change was on the cards?

The latest figures suggest that the PS4 is outselling the Xbox One 3-to-1 and has an installed user base of 9 million consoles compared to just 5 million for the Xbox One. Just matching the PS4 on price clearly isn’t enough, especially when you consider Sony retains the advantage of offering a more powerful gaming machine.

Microsoft can compete by offering exclusive, highly desirable games, but that takes a long time–months, if not years or planning and development. If they want any chance of closing the gap to PS4 quickly, then a price drop is the most obvious thing to do. There’s no guarantee it would work, though, and Microsoft would incur significant losses by doing it so early on in the console’s lifecycle. Sony could also counter, matching any price drop and negating the advantage.